They Are Killing Small Business: The Number Of Self-Employed Americans Is Lower Than It Was In 1990

By Michael Snyder, on May 23rd, 2017

After eight long, bitter years under Obama, will things go better for entrepreneurs and small businesses now that Donald Trump is in the White House? Once upon a time, America was the best place in the world for those that wanted to work for themselves. Our free market capitalist system created an environment in which entrepreneurs and small businesses greatly thrived, but today they are being absolutely eviscerated by the control freak bureaucrats that dominate our political system. Year after year, leftist politicians just keep piling on more rules, more regulations, more red tape and more taxes. As a result, the number of self-employed Americans is now lower than it was in 1990…

In April 1990, 8.7 million Americans were self-employed, but today only 8.4 million Americans are self-employed.

Of course our population has grown much, much larger since that time. In 1990, there were 249 million people living in the United States, but today there are 321 million people living in this country.

What this means is that the percentage of the population that is self-employed is way down.

In fact, one study found that the percentage of Americans that are self-employed fell by more than 20 percent between 1991 and 2010.

And if you go back even farther, the numbers are even more depressing. It may be hard to believe, but the percentage of “new entrepreneurs and business owners” declined by a staggering 53 percent between 1977 and 2010.

Sometimes I like to watch a television show called Shark Tank, and on that show they make it seem like entrepreneurship in America is thriving.

But the exact opposite is actually the case. In a previous article, I discussed how the number of new businesses being created in the United States has been steadily falling over the years. According to economist Tim Kane, the number of startup jobs per one thousand Americans has been declining for several consecutive presidential administrations…

Bush Sr.: 11.3

Clinton: 11.2

Bush Jr.: 10.8

Obama: 7.8

So why is this happening?

As I mentioned at the top of this article, self-employed Americans are being absolutely strangled by oppressive rules, regulations and taxes.

To illustrate this point, I would like to share with you some quotes from an open letter that was authored by a small business owner named Don Chernoff…

#1I work for myself and have to pay my own medical expenses. Before the “affordable care act” I was paying about $200 per month for a high deductible policy. It was far from perfect but it got so much worse under the “Affordable” care act.

I now pay over $400 a month, my deductible went from $5,000 to over $6,000 and my out of pocket costs for care have skyrocketed.

#2I have to spend dozens of hours and thousands of dollars for a tax accountant each spring to prepare my taxes because I cannot possibly understand how to do it myself, and I have a master’s degree in engineering.

#3Many years ago when I quit a perfectly good job to start my own small business, I was shocked to learn that I had to pay both my share and what had been my employer’s share of Social Security.

#4Between state, federal and local taxes you’ve probably paid 50% or more of your income in taxes, but that’s not enough for politicians.

If you’ve been lucky enough to have created a business you can sell, now you’ll get to enjoy paying another tax on the capital gain from the sale.

This is another reason why we need a conservative revolution in Washington. We should demand that our members of Congress lower tax rates dramatically, completely eliminate the self-employment tax, greatly simplify the tax code and get rid of as many regulations on small business owners as possible.

What we are doing right now is not working. Small businesses have traditionally been one of the main engines of economic growth in this country, but thanks to the left they are unable to play that role at the moment.

It isn’t an accident that over the last ten years the U.S. economy has grown at exactly the same rate as it did during the 1930s.

If we want our economy to be great again, we need to go back and start doing the things that made it great in the first place. If we continue to suffocate our economy, we will continue to get the same results.

And with each passing day, we get more signs that the economy is heading into another major downturn. For instance, we just learned that Sears is closing 30 more stores on top of the 150 that had already been announced…

Sears Holdings, which wasn’t shy when it announced at the start of the year that it is closing 150 underperforming stores, has quietly added at least 30 more to the list.

Another 12 Sears stores and 18 Kmarts are among the locations that are closing, from Carson, Calif., to Hialeah, Fla., with most scheduled to shut their doors in July, based on calls to the stores, malls and confirmation in local media.

At the start of the year, the retailer pinpointed the 150 stores it said it would close. But it declined this week to provide a list of additional locations that are slated to shut since then, saying that it update store counts each quarter.

If you’re surprised by the collapse in new home sales in April, then you’re not paying attention.

The 11.4% MoM plunge in new home sales in April was 5 standard deviations below expectations and the biggest since March 2015.

Yes, the stock market is holding up for the moment, but for most Americans the “real economy” just continues to deteriorate. Just because we are at the end of a giant financial bubble does not mean that everything is going to be okay.

The numbers that I brought up in this article are just another example of our long-term economic decline. In a healthy economy, entrepreneurs and small businesses would be thriving. But instead, they are being systematically strangled out of existence by a political system that is wildly out of control.

The World has shifted to Asia. They are done with America. Bangkok is now the most visited city in the world over taking New York, London and Paris, out of 10 cities…….5 are in Asia.

In Thailand, it’s so easy to be an entrepreneur …That is why they have the best street food culture in the world. South East Asia is the PLACE TO BE when the western world collapses.

Many Americans have already moved to Asia.

socalbeachdude

Laughably false and Asia is in far worse shape than the US and is dominated by major corporations with very few small business operations at all.

alan

Coming to a country near you!

socalbeachdude

True.

HeyAHuman

LOL, conditions of living are better in Asia? Where many people are literally worked to death, illegal prostitution is rampant, and there’s harsh, draconian punishment for crime?

If it’s not bad now, just wait until TPP goes through and ravages them…

Richard O. Mann

Amazing how things shift. The US pretty much ended the British rule during WW2 by charging them for the arms we sold them. We shifted their wealth to us. Now, we have shifted our wealth to China for the most part. The lure of cheap made goods. We are now subject to invasion by the Islamist powers, just as West Europe is now being invaded and conquered. It’s all just rock and roll.

socalbeachdude

Absolutely false. The US certainly doesn’t “shift wealth” at all to China.

LIZ THE SHIZ

Thailand, yup really good for pedophiles and sex tourism you mean!!!

socalbeachdude

And for those who love living under a military coup government with a King that viciously punishes anyone who insults him! Pure totalitarianism.

Liberty First

Chile is pretty easy as well…while in China, I was amazed at the entrepreneurial spirit and wondered a bit if much of the negative press was not disinformation from our govt. (first time I had ever felt that uncomfortable feeling so strongly)….decided more ignorance than anything else. Those Asian countries are not perfect by any means, some are evil, but they sure are busting it when it comes to economic entrepreneurial spirit.

socalbeachdude

Who in their right mind would even consider attempting to operate a small business in the USA today? Many of us who used to do that for decades SIMPLY SHUT THEM DOWN. Being an employer is akin to PUTTING A TARGET ON YOUR BACK and it costs at least 40% more than what employees are directly paid for each employee you have in any business in the US today.

Stuey

emmm…….you posted this twice, except the second time wasn’t in all bold letters like this one.

Stuey

oh wait, you put “today” at the very end to beat the system that won’t allow for duplicate post….real smartazz you are.

socalbeachdude

Your mindless cluelessness is absolutely beyond mind boggling.

socalbeachdude

It was stuck in moderation for many hours and disappeared from the comments during that time.

walcon

You don’t own a business do you? Yeah, I can tell.

socalbeachdude

False.

Richard Failla

You never mention the garbage economy that Obama inherited from w. Bush and the job losses under that adm. Also the cost of that war which resulted from fabricated lies weighed heavily. You need to tell a complete story, not cherry pick.

socalbeachdude

The US economy was doing far better in 2008-2009 than it is presently and any President has little to nothing to do with the economy in any event.

Politicallyincorrect

The problem is fcukin sionist gews. Kill those mother fcukers. Follow the money

aldownunder

This comment was deleted

Politicallyincorrect

Because there’s no free speech. It’s my first amendment right.

socalbeachdude

There is no right to free speech on any private forum.

Cheese Puff flotation device

I anxiously await the return of Ricardo the Mathmagician, I’m on pins and needles waiting for him to check the authors math.

TOUJOURS DEMAIN

You may have to point out the math errors to Ricardo the Mathmagician because the authors numbers seem to be mathematically correct as I look at them.

I think I will eat a banana.

JC Teecher

Have some freshly picked strawberries right from the field to go with those nanners. They compliment each other.
We picked four + gallons @ $8.00 per gallon and canned many jars of jam yesterday. Today, I am mashing in some bananas with my crushed strawberries for some killer homemade wine.
I have made many flavors of fruit wine over the years, and this is a first. Eat, drink, and be merry while you still can.

Richard O. Mann

For tomorrow, you may die. Or, they may come and take it all way from you.

socalbeachdude

Really, Seriously, Donnie?

‘Unbelievable job on the drug problem’: Trump’s PRAISE for murderous Philipine leader Rodrigo Duterte is revealed in leaked transcript of confidential call as thousands of dealers and addicts are slaughtered

President Donald Trump (left) late last month praised his Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte (seen right with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday), for doing ‘an unbelievable job’ in his war on drugs even as human rights groups accuse him of sanctioning murder and extrajudicial killings in the southeast Asian country, it was learned on Tuesday. Duterte has faced international condemnation for his brutal crackdown on crime, which has claimed thousands of lives and led to warnings from rights groups about a possible crime against humanity.

It’s not just the lefties, The big cooperates are choking small businesses. What small retailer or service can compete with mega corps like Walmart or Amazon?

socalbeachdude

Exactly, they are the 2 largest retailers in the USA with enormously elevated stock prices and Walmart is a component of the DJIA 30 (Dow). Amazon shares need to fall around 90% in price to get back to a reasonable PE level, but speculators keep piling into those stocks and any smaller retailers attempting to compete will just get bowled over by those behemoths which should be broken up for reasons of Anti-Trust laws.

JC Teecher

Those two are just the tip of the iceberg. Across the world, big corporations are in the business of political influencing, and the elimination of small pockets of competition is where they focus.
Goodbye Mom and Pop business, the corporations pay big money to get you wrapped up in mega rolls of red tape and regulation, and then your very own gov, throws you into a wheel barrow and pushes you off a cliff into oblivion.

Over on MarketWatch not long ago Rex Nutting wrote an absolutely excellent and brilliantly clear article on the US economy and stock markets which is a MUST READ if you want to understand what has really been going on over the past 40 or so years which got us to where we are today:

Opinion: How the stock market destroyed the middle class – By Rex Nutting

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — There’s something seriously wrong with an economy that nurtures a few billionaires but can’t sustain the middle class.

Many factors have been blamed for the plummeting fortunes of the American middle class: globalization, technology, deregulation, easy credit, the winner-take-all economy, and even the inevitable tide of history.

But one under-appreciated factor is a pervasive business model that encourages top managers of American corporations to loot their company for short-term gains, depriving those companies of the funds they need to build and enlarge, and invest in their workers for the long haul.

How do they loot their company? By using large stock buybacks to manage the short-term objectives that trigger higher compensation for themselves. By using those stock buybacks to manipulate the share price, which allows them to use inside information to time their own stock sales. By using buybacks to funnel most of the company’s profits back to shareholders (including themselves).

They use the stock market to loot their companies.

“The ‘buyback corporation’ is in large part responsible for a national economy characterized by income inequality, employment instability, and diminished innovative capacity,” wrote William Lazonick, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell in a new paper published by the Brookings Institution.

Lazonick argues that corporations — which once retained a sizable share of profits to reinvest (including investing in their workforce by paying them enough to get them to stay) — have adopted a “downsize-and-distribute” model.

Who in their right mind would want to be “self-employed” at this time in America?

Stuey

you posted something similar to this twice after this………WTH is wrong with you?

socalbeachdude

Nothing whatsoever is wrong with me, but the prior 2 comments went into indefinite moderation and didn’t show up for hours, so the issue was one with the technology of this comment section. Why do you want to so quickly jump to bizarre conclusions without comprehending any of the facts?

Stuey

Just wait for it to go through moderation you inpatient fool, don’t post it over and over.

JC Teecher

Mentally challenged?

laura ann

Agree, that’s why hubby worked for Fed. gov. 40 yrs, as blue collar employee along with other friends. Benefits and lots of vac. time. Now retired. The ones I know who were self employed (several ) went bankrupt, some after several decades of working. One was a machinist, other an engineer for municipal water planning in smaller communities.

What is it with you with this “totally for” or “totally against” nonsense regarding Donald Trump?

D.R.Phantom

“Lefties!?” Nonsense. Those who created the ongoing turmoil are “the righties”
However, the same destiny is waiting for any capitalist society. By the immanent aggregation of capital, all the nation wealth will eventually end in the hands of few. Few, but very skilled to protect their interest and vicious beyond description. They are (actually) who elect governments and presidents; they are who control MSM outlets; they are who create the nation education curriculum; they are who start and stop wars as for their advantage; … ; they are who create unbreakable bureaucratic obstacles to protect themselves from competition while screaming about the invasion of communist ideas.
Capitalist system is in a permanent turmoil since its creation in 19th century (I speak about modern, industrial capitalism). Capitalism triggered two major world wars and today is doing its best to start another global calamity – all that to justify the system that enables the one to have seven heart transplantations at home while millions are undernourished. What capitalism brought to, say, Ukraine? It made Ukrainians one of the poorest European nations while her president is one of the richest people of the world – who never stops talking about the communist danger from the East.
Yet, cheese-smile stupefied Western public can’t see the forest for the trees.

HadItWithThem

You are exactly correct and the underlying evil you speak of is the J3W!

D.R.Phantom

One of my Hindi friends came up with a remark, “We can fulfill their need but never their greed.” I responded with, “U r wrong pal for all they need is greed.” 🙂

socalbeachdude

False.

JC Teecher

For capitalism to work properly and profitably for all peoples, it must have non-corrupt, Christian based, leaders in most positions in gov, and as business owners/operators/officers.

In ussag nowadays, the majority, are just the opposite.

socalbeachdude

What there must be in the USA is BENEVOLENT PATERNALISM for the prior “middle class” situation in the USA to ever return.

socalbeachdude

What utterly bogus nonsense.

D.R.Phantom

Give me a cheese smile. I like it. 🙂

XSANDIEGOCA

Don’t forget the Adversarial Legal Climate. Every customer that comes through the door is a potential lawsuit. I am amazed at anyone who makes their living independently in America. They are magicians.

Richard O. Mann

I had thought about starting a small business at one time. But the cost involved put the kibosh on that. The American dream of starting your own business and taking care of yourself, is just about gone. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

XSANDIEGOCA

It’s sad.

XSANDIEGOCA

When working for the government makes more sense than working in the private sector, you have a problem.

apeiron

It’s getting to the point that it may soon become impossible to operate above board in America. I hope things can be turned around by President Trump’s administration…time to put the limited back in limited government.

XSANDIEGOCA

I would say 25=50% of the Economy in Europe is under the table.

socalbeachdude

Which is, of course, TOTALLY ILLEGAL.

South Texas

I find it amusing that #3 was shocked that has to pay his share of SS/medicare. I figure a personal business would only be worth doing if you you could clear $75k to $100k for the effort you would have to put into it. A bit of research would have highlighted the amount of tax rape that occurs. Even worse is the maze of regulations to comply with for HR, environmental, local city and state, and such. No wonder companies have to hire people to be familiar with this stuff just to stay out of trouble whatever that may be.

socalbeachdude

Yep, and Schedule C self-employment taxes are double what a person would have to pay if employed as in a W-2 employment situation the employer picks up 50% of those costs whereas a self-employed person is obligated to pay those himself or herself.

You didn’t count the landscaping and roofing companies run by illegals otherwise the number would be greater. The number will decrease once Trump deports them in a few years.

Richard O. Mann

They are the only ones who will do that type of work these days. Try to find white or black people who will work in the hot sun, or cold, doing roofing. I know several roofers. They have a hard time keeping people. Same thing for landscaping. How many white or black people do you know who own and work landscaping? I know of a bridge builder/construction company owner who also had problems getting people who would work in that summer heat in the south, or any where for that matter. Mexicans were the only ones who would come back each day, and work. I’m not saying Americans are lazy and don’t want to do manual labor, but I am saying it’s hard to find any who will.

JC Teecher

The drowning of small businesses is probably one of the most idiotic things a nation can do to it’s peoples.

The other is for the leaders pushing their agenda via their religion, that entails killing of innocents. How stupid does a human have to be to fall for a fake religion, that promises a young man 72 virgins for taking out innocent lives as a suicide bomber?
Something new I have learned about i-slam ideology this week. the leaders of that fakeness, claim that a suicide bomber that takes out innocents during “special” times of the year, get “10” times the rewards in their heaven, which is run by Lucy-fer, in all reality. Those special occasions where the ten times rewards deal comes in is during Ramadan, or when a Christian, world leader comes to visit, bringing along his very -ewish son-n-law.
Big, big event for the suicide bomber in Britain this week, “huge”.

So, as he descended, after blowing his body to smithereens, he entered his eternal life residence, and was directed by his god, ole lucy-fer, to a door way where his 72 virgins were waiting.
“hold on a minute” he exclaimed, “I killed on a special event week, I am supposed to get 720 virgins.”
Lucy-fer says; “yep you are right, go to the next doorway and the 7200 awaits you.”
Grinning like a mule eating saw briars, the bomber opens the door and as far as the eye can see, it is kid goats.

Note to self: when entering a contract handled by infidels, it is best to stop and read the fine print first.

socalbeachdude

Huh?

Benji Frank Lyn

One reason why I cannot live for this world and it’s systems. They will all pass, but the word of The Lord will live forever. Whats was that again? The two certainties of living death and taxes. It won’t change.

SnodtBlossom

there is no god

ter ber

It’s not just the Federal government, it’s the state and local government. The business I work for is a 350 room nursing home and 225 senior apt/assisted living. 600 employees.
They pay $500,000 a year in property taxes. It’s a
Business killer in a heavily refugee/welfare blue state.

JC Teecher

Yessiree bub. I have been preaching this for the past 7 to 8 years. Local,state, and fed taxes will eat you alive if you are not prepared to face the facts of the future.

Why are there so many houses on the market today?
Early baby boomers are still retiring at the rate of 10,000 per day, which is nearly 100,000 per week being put on fixed incomes, when you add in the early retirees, and people going on SS Disability and SS welfare.

For sheets and giggles let’s just say there are 50,000 new folks per week, that have barely enough to pay the bills they have acquired that are built in like taxes and insurance rates, that fit into one of the fixed income brackets above.

When they finally sit down and do the math, what is left over is just a paltry sum of what they had originally planned on.
If a retiree lives in the city, then add in the city tax, with the county property tax, and then some state and federal taxes for a while, and then their health insurance, care, and prescriptions eat it all up.
There is only one solution if they are to remain able to buy food,clothing, and have any semblance of a decent retirement lifestyle; …DOWNSIZE! period.

Downsizing or going full on travel and motorcoach living, is the only way to avoid all those ever escalating taxes. When the Trump tax plan comes about and people are paying less in income taxes, and the Fed cuts it’s share of support to the states and counties, look out. The local and state tax rates will skyrocket, and the formula for evaluating property will change to increase the value of your property as well.

They will get their money to operate from the sheeple, one way or another. Some of us knew this many years ago, and decided that owning a 4000 sq. ft. home, to keep up with the Jones was not in our future.

Just about a 1/4 mile from my mtn. home is my Dad’s 3500 sq. ft fully modernized ritzy looking house on the hill. Yes he has a few more acres, but it is steep mtn. land, and his county property taxes are approaching $2000.00 per year. I keep my place simple, and have my areas of what I call “shade tree mechanic” stockpiles of metal, concrete, plastic, and some old treated wood.
My total living space square footage is about a third of his, and my total property taxes are about $200.00 per year. That is about $17.00 per month, for a never ending tax payment for me, and about $117.00 per month for a never ending and ever increasing monthly tax expense for him.

Who would come closer to making their tax payment obligations, if a total collapse of the system hits, and the county still needs their funds?

ter ber

Excellent dissertation. I saw the writing on the wall and downsized a 2600 sq ft 1/2 acre to a 1000 sq ft 1/2 acre,
One week before the 2008 crash. The pinhead blue state
Bureaucrats have my property taxes at $3000 a year!
It’s literally a tear down if I need to sale, the value is the land. They screw You any way they can. But the build NEW apts for the refugees with our tax dollars. American citizens need not apply. My friends got turned down when they tried to move in. Lol.

JC Teecher

Excellent reply as well.
I saw the same writing on the Wall with the Real Estate banking debacle as it began to rear it’s ugly head in late 2006.

I had made an awesome purchase, in 1995, of a pristine, stream side, property, with 1000 ft of paved road frontage, and access to thousands of acres of almost wilderness, timber covered mountains, divided by huge streams and waterfalls.

In 2007, against my long range plans for the property, I sold it for a 600% premium price, and paid off all debts and had a small amount of pocket change to squirrel back. As the bottom fell out of the Real Estate and Stock market, and my company folded in 2009, I cruised through financially intact, and unscathed.
I will never get back deep in debt nor live beyond my means, ever again.

The writing on the wall for the future is taxpayers being robbed to pay for those that come here and never pay for their indebtedness to our system. Some do contribute in many ways, but most only come for the handouts and freebies afforded to them by our liberal gov system.

ter ber

Yes, The USA best years 1950-2000, glad we got to be there, now it’s going to be a regulated hell hole.

socalbeachdude

There are VERY FEW HOUSES ON THE MARKET now compared to normal which is creating an INVENTORY SHORTAGE of houses in the USA.

As to property taxes, here in California they are about 1.25% of a property’s value which results in about $12,500 a year for a typical $1 million house, whereas in Texas the property tax rate is around 2.50% which would be a $25,000 property tax charge for a $1 million house.

LIZ THE SHIZ

yes but your company loves SSI AND MEDICADE / MEDICARE after taking all the seniors property and savings, ??

ter ber

It’s worse than that, former owners were non-profit.
New owners a giant Hedge Fund that owns hundreds.
FOR PROFIT. They think us baby boomers have tons of money. Most my baby boomer friends cannot even afford cable TV. But yes, they squeeze every bit out of you. Private Pay- Private room in the Nursing home is around $9000 a month, once that is sucked up, u can go on Medicaid (our taxes) for around $5000 a month.
My generation will be wheeled into Kevorcian Klinics.
The millennials will have no problem with that.

LIZ THE SHIZ

the biggest scam going is that when the children or relatives of the nursing home resident are not around they get treated like crap , abused and taken advantage of by the staff and management , I have seen this with my own eyes and it sickens me.

JC Teecher

Big news story of the day.
Trump visits the Pope in his private office this morning.
Pope gives trump advice on how to lead America, and also gives him three books on how to rule the world into the future of the beast system.

Trump’s response to the Pope’s advice and nwo books, was to give him a box of rocks. Go Trump!

JC Teecher

Dumb as a box of rocks.

LIZ THE SHIZ

and Melania told Donny “talk to the hand”

socalbeachdude

They were photographed holding hands today while touring the Sistine chapel in Rome.

socalbeachdude

Huh?

ollie173

“After eight long, bitter years under Obama, will things go better for entrepreneurs and small businesses now that Donald Trump is in the White House?”

LOL, first of all, the “bitter”ness of those years was mainly due to the prio eight long years of the Bush years which raped the economy (as republicans typically do) and left it in near-depression stage which Obama inherited!

“Year after year, leftist politicians just keep piling on more rules, more regulations, more red tape and more taxes.”
Again LOL (even harder). The regulations put in place was the result of the free-for-all economic raping that was going on during the Bush administration and previously!
Yo, get your facts right before you start accusing…also, I know you quote/unquote conservatives are drawling at the prospect of another raping of the economy, with the discarded needed regulations, discarded EPA rules, etc!
The conservative republicans have and always will be greedy money lovers, who live and worship money and can care less for their fellow americans!

socalbeachdude

Absolutely false and utterly bogus assertions.

jonodough

Small business is being killed by the internet just like every other retail store. I know, I have Small business and just can’t compete with internet prices. Doing any job for the same price some manufacturer in china can do it for is simply not worth the time and trouble.

JC Teecher

There is one small business that China nor the internet will compete with, and that is restaurant business.

socalbeachdude

Yes, but the failure rate in the restaurant business is nearly 90% for new restaurants.

I totally agree with the abolishment of many of the agencies in DC. Sadly, the government now employs more people than what are employed by private industry and business. That means there are now more users than there are producers. They, the government, will have to keep raising taxes to support all those government workers, right up until the whole system collapses. I think this was covered in “Atlas Shrugged”. The producers in this case have not quit, at least not yet, but are just being taxed out of existence. When will it end? Stay tuned.

socalbeachdude

Even if all of those agencies were abolished it would do very little to actually cut federal government spending which is now around $4 trillion a year.

The biggest part of the spending is SOCIAL PROGRAMS including the Social Security and Medicare insurance programs which are NOT ACTUARILY SOUND and which are paying out vastly more than they have taken in with payroll taxes.

A summary of the fiscal 2015 US federal government expenditures totaling nearly $4 trillion is as follows:

The complete breakdown of Fiscal 2015 expenditures is extensively detailed including actual numbers as well as pie-charts with various percentage breakdowns as to discretionary and non-discretionary expenditures at:

Unless you cut at least $1 trillion of that federal government spending, the US government will continue running up deficits and not have balanced budget and even if it does cut $1 trillion of spending there would be no room at all to lower federal taxes.

JC Teecher

What you speak of, and what the whole bureaucratic gov system has become, is now exactly what God said it would become. A Beast of a System.
Controlled by principalities and powers we can’t see, but by using ignorant and greedy people, to help move it along and into place, for the coming Beast/Antichrist that will use it to rule and control people that are not well versed in the Holy Word.
The Big Brother spy programs are full on identified via the acts of the NSA, and will only get more invasive.
The cover up of how and what all they are doing to innocent people, by the surveillance, will seem like it has stopped; but it will never stop, and that is how Antichrist can find out anything about anybody, and use that to prod people to worship him.

It won’t take much prodding, because most people are already mentally brainwashed into following all he proposes, in his system of deception and lies.
Sadly; Richard, the part about the “pre-trib escapism of tribulation” will be a big part of that plan, as it pulls many that have followed false prophets and their non-biblical lies, right into his little web of deceit.

Although you can’t see it right now, because you want it so badly, and need to believe in it, you will see exactly what I am speaking of, if you are still here when he comes in like the “morning star”, and in all his royalty and glory. You will have a short window of opportunity to recognize that his plan does not align with the plan you had been preached to about.
He has an answer for that too, but hopefully you will not be deceived any further after that point, and make the necessary steps to get back into God’s good graces.

Richard O. Mann

I am pre tribulation rapture, dispensational, born again, Son of God, by faith through Christ Jesus. Washed in the blood of Jesus, cleansed of all my sin. A new creation. You and I do not agree on the rapture, and never will until after it happens. So, stop trying to convince me of your belief. You are not going to change my mind, and I’m not going to change yours. Have a great whatever time is left. By the way, you never did tell me if you know for sure that if you were to die today, do you know for sure you will go straight to heaven, to the arms of Jesus? I know that I would. How about it JC?

JC Teecher

No doubts here Richard. I am right as rain, but am a sinner until I die.
so, just know I am not trying to change your mind, but am reminding you that the day will come when you realize you have been duped into a false doctrine, that says you get a free pass out of tribulation.
I already gave you and jimmy the scriptures, and my job is finished with you two. I have no ax to grind.
Go in peace, and remember our conversations, for the Word is true and lives forever.

And don’t forget, even if you do get caught and are confined to a jail / prison you will get FREE medical and dental, three meals a day, access to a full library, recreational activities even free college courses. I agree Liz the Shiz, no downside to criminal enterprise.

LIZ THE SHIZ

plus access to drugs and conjugal visits and you come out a better criminal than you went in !!!!!!

Louis Sartor

One reason why so few individuals take the risk and attempt to start a small business is health care. Why should someone leave a large employer that offers quality health care coverage and take their chance on the ACA markets, especially if they have a family. The proposed GOP plan will only make it worse if it should pass.

The USA is alone among industrialized nations in terms of not offering universal health care to its citizens. We prefer to use our national wealth to feed the MIC, a hungry beast indeed. Guns or butter? Many of the readers of this blog may be self professed Christians but I would guess they are likely to choose guns. We live in interesting times.

alan

When the people get tried of the theft the MIC will be there to put down any idea of revolt.

socalbeachdude

The entire MIC (Military Industrial Complex) spending including veterans benefits is only 20% of the federal budget with 4% of that spending going to veterans benefits. The total spending on FEDERAL WELFARE AND MEDICAL BENEFITS including Social Security and Medicare Insurance programs is more than 63% of the federal budget.

socalbeachdude

Medical expense insurance coverage is not a right of anybody and would be FAR TOO EXPENSIVE IN THE USA for any state or the federal government to provide to all without ENORMOUSLY RAISING TAXES to cover it.

The price tag on universal health care is in, and it’s bigger than California’s budget

The price tag is in: It would cost $400 billion to remake California’s health insurance marketplace and create a publicly funded universal heath care system, according to a state financial analysis released Monday.

California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called “single-payer” system, the analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee found. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag.

The cost analysis is seen as the biggest hurdle to creating a universal system, proposed by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.

It remains a long-shot bid. Steep projected costs have derailed efforts over the past two decades to establish such a health care system in California. The cost is higher than the $180 billion in proposed general fund and special fund spending for the budget year beginning July 1.

Employers currently spend between $100 billion to $150 billion per year, which could be available to help offset total costs, according to the analysis. Under that scenario, total new spending to implement the system would be between $50 billion and $100 billion per year.

Wouldn’t it be great if we cut military spending in half, down to a reasonable level, and used the saved money to fund health care for all Americans.

socalbeachdude

Military spending in the US only amounts to 16% of the annual $4 trillion federal expenditures and even cutting that by 50% would only save about $320 billion a year which wouldn’t pay for anything at all in the way of medical expenditures in the US.

Louis Sartor

The $320B is a nice down payment on something that actually benefits the vast majority of the American people. A huge chunk of military spending is unnecessary and padded with pork. Empires go broke on such nonsense. We are a nation that has truly lost its way.

socalbeachdude

Are you not aware that last year the US federal debt INCREASED BY $1.4 TRILLION and this year is on track to increase by at least $1 trillion? That’s how empires go broke – by spending vastly more money than they are taking in via revenues.

Louis Sartor

Always great to hear from you. Happy Memorial Day!

Empires go bankrupt in part due to military overreach and allowing the ultra wealthy to evade taxes. The 1% are a threat to what’s left of our nominal democracy. The investment theory of politics describes what’s happened in the last 40 years. Our government is for sale and only the wealthy can play that game in today’s world.

Most of the wealth today is held by them and the inequality accelerated during BHO’s terms. DT will make that problem even worse than it, a banana republic plutocracy….

Stuey

So you used to run a business? I thought you were a trust fund child that lived in a manson in Beverly Hills and never worked a day in your life.

LIZ THE SHIZ

pool boy living in a guest house like Kato Kahlen

socalbeachdude

Laughably false, dudette.

socalbeachdude

You certainly do have quite an imagination that always takes information far out of context.

Stuey

You never answered the question. So i will take it that no you never have run a business so you have no credibility on this topic so quit making foolish comments like health insurance cost are irrelevant to small businesses. That is about the stupidest thing anyone has ever said on here.

socalbeachdude

Once again, laughably false.

Ucefphlas

Study, I mean stuey, how much are you being paid?

Stuey

Paid for what usyphilis? actually it is a good “small business” for me, thanks for asking.

IP Test

198.57.164.35

“V”

I truly feel Mr. Chernoff’s item #1. My employer had great medical / dental insurance. After the ACA was enacted it was maybe a year or two later the deductibles quadrupled, many items were no longer covered, just a complete disaster.

Ucefphlas

Please tell that to as many people as you can. Especially the youth.

Stuey

i know a guy who has the large equipment needed and desires to go into business full time for himself. But he can’t afford the health insurance premiums for his family if he was totally self employed. So he works a job as an employee and does his business as a side job on the weekends.

socalbeachdude

Medical expense insurance costs are a small part of the costs involved with self-employment and running a business and if his issue is with those costs then he doesn’t have any chance of turning any profit at all in whatever business he wants to pursue.

Stuey

Yeah, okay when the health insurance cost for his family is going to be almost twice his house payment it isn’t an issue. You are such an idiot.

socalbeachdude

Hardly, but that sure does describe YOU.

walcon

I see who you are now. You have no job and no friends, so you hang out here to reply to just about every post to sprout your (lack of) wisdom- a troll as it is called.
It has come to the point no one listens to your garbage anymore. But I must say, it is comical. Now go finish your apple juice and take your nap.

socalbeachdude

Huh? Where do you come up with such utter and totally bogus nonsense?

Stuey

You can’t respond to the points i made.

socalbeachdude

You didn’t make any points at all, but rather just put up more inane and mindless snarks.

Alberto Francis

Republicans, Democrats its seems they have both been busy for the past 40 years making themselves richer at the expense of the rest of us.

To believe anyone we put into office will help the little guy is living a pipe dream

If you have not started saving, investing, and properly setting yourself up for the future turmoil to come. Sorry to tell ya this government will not be doing anything to help you out. Hell they are doing exactly what they said they would, and slowly it is now coming to light that most of this will not be beneficial to middle class America.

Cut the EPA, Dept of Ed, HUD, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. Take it all down. I know 1 truth, not 1 PENNY of those cuts will benefit anyone in middle class America. Those cuts will funnel money straight to the top, top, top!

socalbeachdude

Medicare is not an entitlement program, but rather an INSURANCE PROGRAM like Social Security, but both are underfunded relative to the cost of benefits and the very substantial extension of longevity of the population.

As to Medicaid, that is an entitlement program to provide no-cost medical expense coverage to USA residents as an alternative to other avenues of medical expense coverage and now more than 77 million Americans in the USA are beneficiaries of the Medicaid program at immense cost to the US federal and state governments.

Liberty First

Well, we agree on something. Amen on this.

orsobubu

Shrinking self-employed americans is good news for US capitalism. Tipically, self-employed people cannot produce much capital because, on average, only wage work (exploited work, or not payed work) can transform in surplus work, surplus product, surplus value, money and finally capital. A self employed worker, cannot exploit anyone except himself, and the number of extra worked hours (after the hours needed to maintain and reproduce him as a worker) are very limited if he want to survive the stress. Here in Italy, ie, there is a historical large base of micro self-employed businesses (favoured by the fact that some categories are protected by law from free market competition, enjoying vicious forms of monopolism), and you know Italy is very far from US productivity, where there are huge corporations employing a vast proletariat. Even if a single professional is capable of produce consistent money, usually he cannot transform it efficiently in capital (machines, employed new personnel) preferring ie to buy luxury home and cars. Anyway, you should always look at the averaged production/distribution cycle, where money (even if gained by rent, speculation, monopolism, overprofit, etc) can be explained in the first instance only by free-market wage work exploitation (see K.Marx for details).

socalbeachdude

Where on earth do you come up with such nonsense?

alan

A long time ago I lived in the UK for a few years. I talked to a few people about the taxes there and discovered you could get a big discount if it was cash under the table deal. So I think we will be forced to do the same thing here. Our system is dying but its just too slow to get it over with

socalbeachdude

There is no such thing when it comes to tax bills due.

socalbeachdude

TAX REVENUES DRYING UP FOR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT…

Trump administration warns tax receipts are coming in slowly, government could run out of cash sooner than expected

White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Wednesday said that tax receipts were coming in “slower than expected” and that the federal government could run out of cash sooner than it had thought.

What that article states is 100% correct. The US federal government is running MORE THAN A $1 TRILLION ANNUAL DEFICIT this year.

walcon

I have a small business 26 years old and just the past 6 years it has become less profitable to stay in business, and yes it all boils down to the rules, regs, and taxes, but also the rise in the cost of supplies and products. Health insurance is a scam and a joke. So many other countries have good healthcare at 1/5 the cost and some like Norway, it is free via a small tax.
The US has become a 3rd world country and getting worse- all at the hands of those who say they are going to fix it- yet THEY are the ones who broke it. They will never fix it! If they worked for me, they would be fired on the spot! But that’s right- they do work for me.

socalbeachdude

There is no such thing as free medical expense insurance coverage at all anywhere for anyone.

walcon

And your point? Did you actually read my statement or just browse through it? I thought so.

socalbeachdude

Huh?

socalbeachdude

The price tag on universal health care is in, and it’s bigger than California’s budget

The price tag is in: It would cost $400 billion to remake California’s health insurance marketplace and create a publicly funded universal heath care system, according to a state financial analysis released Monday.

California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called “single-payer” system, the analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee found. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag.

The cost analysis is seen as the biggest hurdle to creating a universal system, proposed by Sens. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, and Toni Atkins, D-San Diego.

It remains a long-shot bid. Steep projected costs have derailed efforts over the past two decades to establish such a health care system in California. The cost is higher than the $180 billion in proposed general fund and special fund spending for the budget year beginning July 1.

Employers currently spend between $100 billion to $150 billion per year, which could be available to help offset total costs, according to the analysis. Under that scenario, total new spending to implement the system would be between $50 billion and $100 billion per year.

The problem with all the red tape is that the globalists want it this way so they can destroy our economy, and rebuild a new world order. They don’t want small business owners to thrive because that would mean the economy as is might start improving. That is the furthest thing from their agenda. Get prepared now folks.

Esteban

Hello friends, for years now, we have seen the same Crap in our banana republic countries.
Politicians learn, and learn very fast.
They have all day long to come up with all that great stuff, but of course. They are just the face, the ones to be blamed, the other day a law was passed in congress that raised the tax for our social security Crap, I asked, to drafted this paperwork… Because it is obvious it wasnt the retarded who introduced it.
Same with all those college graduates. There is a huge explosión of new graduates, and their tuition has always been ptomoted as the greatest thing, the legacy that the parents can leave their children. Not anymore, it only creates debt, and dispair.
How can this system has survived as much as it has, escapes my comprenhension…
Best of lucks to everyone.

mtntrek3

The powers that be don’t want small businesses, they want to squash them and individuals in favor of the big corporations. Mom and Pop shops are becoming extinct. They don’t want us to have a say basically, or produce outside their realm. Control is their objective. Very sad.

nomorelies343

$$$ buys politicians to make laws to help big corporations to make more $$$

mtntrek3

Yep.

socalbeachdude

True, and indeed very sad.

Trevor

I noticed that the pro-capitalism author didn’t mention the crushing rents that small-business owners are forced to pay to real-estate capitalists. I noticed that he didn’t mention the near-monopoly condition of American capitalism that makes it almost impossible for any small business owner to compete.

American capitalism has forced many former employees into being “independent contractors” who are also forced to pay both sides of Social Security taxes while being paid much lower wages, but no capitalist writer is concerned about those people.

socalbeachdude

Yep, and vastly excessive price gouging rents are precise what has caused many millions of US small businesses to shut down entirely.

Fish Deep

You have to understand, the freaks who run things don’t want you to succeed. There is no mystery. If this was not the case we wouldn’t have the imbecilic system we have. The politicians who must necessarily change the system can’t. Because they are inextricably beholden to the real ruling power…the money creators.